Meet the people of Klong Toey through Sam Gregg’s lens

It’s after two years of life in Bangkok that Sam Gregg, a portrait and documentary photographer, discovered Klong Toey, otherwise known as the Bangkok slums. A forbidden place in the capital where he took the photographs of his series « Neon Dreams ». A series title inspired by some of the inhabitants, “from the poorest north-east of the country, attracted by the neon lights of the city and the dream it encompasses », says he. Located only 15 minutes from office blocks and designer shopping malls, it is home to around 100,000 people. « There, an average household earns only around one-third of the Bangkok average », explains Sam, before adding « To compound the squalid living conditions the residents of the slums experience abuse, murder, drug addiction, prostitution, unemployment, and disease on a regular basis. As a documentary photographer, I felt that it was my responsibility to shed light on this situation ».

An enriching experiment for Sam Gregg, who met there « beautiful and misunderstood people », that you can now discover through his photographs.